NATIONAL BADGER DAY UPDATES
Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger (you know you're doing it) MUSHROOM MUSHROOM Badger Badger Badger Badger (you're welcome - tee hee!)
-With 31 days until November 5, nearly 2 million ballots have already been cast - and with that, the campaign of Kamala Harris is shifting from people getting to know her and her policies to getting the vote out. That effort is one Harris, building out from her massive fundraising and the infrastructure from President Biden's campaign, is well under way. Campaign events will continue (more on that later), but with the official line of a close campaign and the desire to try to give MAGA a decisive defeat with a large enough turnout, Harris is bringing all hands on deck - from Liz Cheney and a group of other formerly Republican women to Barack Obama, all of whom will be on the trail this week and through the rest of the month.
-Harris herself continues with her day job of Vice President, focusing on the ongoing relief effort underway in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Helene, whose death toll is now over 200. That effort is being undermined severely by a new line of lies being used by her opponent, Republican Presidential nominee Old Weird Convicted Felon Ex-President Trump (R-apist), who has decided that vilifying immigrants and endangering them is not cynical or terrifying enough to counteract Harris' GOTV effort - so he has now led right-wing media to constantly insist, despite the actual evidence on the ground and witnessing by Republican Governors and elected officials in the most affected areas and numerous NC newspapers running editorials tearing Trump's lies apart, that the White House is neglecting helping states who need help - in large part (according to Trump) because Harris and Biden do not want to help red states that may not vote for them.
-That last bit about refusing aid to states who do not politically align with them is, again, utter and complete claptrap when it comes to Biden. But the fact that Trump made the accusation led to a rare circumstance: a journalist at a major media institution to investigate a Trump claim to see whether it was true or not. The investigators came from the DC political gossip news site Politico, and YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WHAT THEY FOUND!
-What they found was that in 2018, when California was in the midst of a drought that helped trigger a wave of wildfires, the state was initially denied Federal aid to fight them. And as you may recall, in 2018 the leader of the Federal Government was ... (checking) ... NOT Joe Biden ... NOT Kamala Harris ... NOT Barack Obama ... NOT Hillary Clinton ... NOT even Nancy Pelosi ... but it WAS ... DONALD TRUMP! Lo and behold, it had happened before that too - in 2017, when Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, and Trump dragged his wee tiny feet on giving them aid until after he made a trip down there and infamously threw rolls of paper towels at residents who needed more than that.
-So again we see that every accusation Trump makes is, in fact, a confession of something he himself did and would undoubtedly do again given both his everyone-knows-he-is support of Project 2025 (which would eliminate everything from FEMA to NOAA and the National Weather Service) and the fact that in the closing days of this, uh, 'campaign,' what few sentences he utters that can be understood by humans are all about vengeance and vilification, especially if it can involve immigrants.
-AND THAT'S NOT ALL! The Washington Post even did some journalism surrounding Trump's lie that one reason Biden "doesn't have the money" to give to residents of NC and GA (he does and he is) is because Biden was shifting money from FEMA to immigrants ... and, once again, say it with me ... IT WASN'T BIDEN, IT WAS TRUMP! That's right - in 2019, WaPo discovered that Trump shifted money away from disasters to migrants! Every accusation is a confession ...
-Oh, dear, and THIS JUST IN: After at least two years' worth of such behavior, the New York Times has finally noticed that Trump is having more than a few cognitive and emotional issues, especially on the stump, as they have FINALLY run a feature that could gently be called TRUMP B OLD (or TRUMP B ILL, or TRUMP B ANGRY, or TRUMP B ADDLE, or TRUMP B WEIRD - take your pick!) - one of the very few stories featured by the Gray Lady to point out what opponents and non-MAGA observers have been screaming about for quite a while. Will it last? That depends on whether you think the Times needs to make sure everyone is on knife's edge over the election and that running truthful stories about Trump's mental state may tip the balance because of said news coverage, so ... don't hold your breath.
-Still, Trump needs to make some kind of effort to at least look like he's trying to win a vote or two, so yesterday Trump flew back to Butler, PA, where he was the victim of some kind of assassination attempt and suffered some kind of injury of some sort, but which was supposed to have been the emotional catalyst for his romp past Joe Biden until it wasn't and Biden left the race and Kamala Harris got the emotional lift instead. Hoping to finish his speech, Trump went back to the same spot to show that he can give a speech without one of his own supporters trying to take him out - but THIS time, Trump brought backup ...
-That backup, somewhat inexplicably (unless he paid for all the extra security, which because it's Trump, y'know ...), was none other than billionaire weirdo Elon Musk, who reportedly is paying for some GOTV efforts in some swing states. But Musk was there, and it led to one of the cringier moments of the campaign (and I know, THAT'S saying something!): as Trump brought Musk up to the stage, Musk apparently thought he could jack the crowd up, so he tried to do so by jumping up and down as if he was a four year old who was just told he was going to go to dinner at Dairy Queen that night, and instead made those not in thrall of the two men wonder what Musk snorted before going on stage.
-From there, Musk made a bad joke about wearing all black and being "Dark MAGA" before lying about Democrats wanting "to take your right to vote" (that would be MAGA), that "the 2nd Amendment is there to ensure we have the 1st Amendment" (quite sure the Founding Fathers thought all the Amendments are supposed to work together) and declaring "President Trump must win ... this is a must-win situation" (again, true, but not for the reasons you think, Leon). (And by the way, Musk has been promised a role in a Trump/Vance administration.)
-Trump, for his part, seemed to finally have a semi-decent day in front of a throng (including one person who brought a life-sized cross with him for who the Hell knows why?!), continuing to promise a massive deportation of pretty much all immigrants or anyone Trump thinks looks like an immigrants (that is, anyone non-white) (at a cost being estimated in the trillions, by the way) and also continuing to bizarrely claim Democrats want to perform sex change operations in prisons on - who else? - illegal aliens.
-But at least he sort of told his voters to vote, assuring them that "we have enough votes!" (and setting up his tired scenario of claiming a RIGGED! election when (contractually obliged to say "IF”) (EYEROLL) he loses the popular vote again (and with it the election) and begins work to try to steal the White House as he tried in 2020-21.
-Returning to the recovery effort from Hurricane Helena, FEMA is stretched thin and under-resourced with Congress not in session and not likely to be in session until after the election - and that is not good, because another hurricane is forming in the Gulf. Already named Milton, Hurricane savant Jim Cantore warns that this will likely form quickly, move east, and smash the state of Florida just under the panhandle by midweek as at least a Category 2, but with yet more rain to continue flooding into already-stricken GA. Gird your loins and GTFO of FL ...
-Tomorrow will be the one-year anniversary of the HAMAS terrorist attacks throughout Israel, and that country's subsequent military responses that have led to catastrophic damage in Gaza, further attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the world holding its breath to see whether and how much Benjamin Netanyahu will respond to an Iranian missile strike that was generally fended off but marked a dangerous potential to bring the entire Middle East into full-scale war. The Hezbollah attacks in particular seem to have stabilized Netanyahu's domestic political standing for the time being, and with the US elections looming and many in the White House fearful of an "October surprise" that could help Netanyahu ally Trump, tomorrow and this week are likely to be fraught.
-This is a big week in general, though. The First Monday of October signals the start of the newest term of the Supreme Court - and with the six radical right-wing MAGA-supporting Justices, the laundry list of horrors they have planned for the country will begin to be spelled out. On a more positive note, the Nobel Prizes will be awarded over the next several days, highlighting the better nature of humanity while somewhat laundering Alfred Nobel, who created the awards in part out of guilt for inventing dynamite (allegedly).
-And Kamala Harris addresses the charges that she doesn't do interviews by scheduling a veritable gauntlet of them, with her 60 MINUTES interview to be followed on Tuesday by a trilogy of talk as Harris will start with a talk with Howard Stern, slide over before lunch to hang out with the ladies of The View (all Harris supporters). She will wrap up the day with Stephen Colbert, and on top of THAT, an interview recorded with megapodcaster Alex Cooper's CALL HER DADDY will drop on Tuesday as well. That followed another podcast interview released last week on the Matt Barnes/Stephen Jackson NBA-centric podcast ALL THE SMOKE. She will end the week with an interview on Univision and a town hall in Nevada. (Heck, Tim Walz is even on Fox News Sunday this morning!) Keep these in mind the next time NYT or WaPo complains about Kamala not doing any interviews ...
-In contrast, Trump's schedule is not known beyond making sure he visits his three newest favorite restaurants: Chik-Fil-A, KFC, and Popeye's - because nobody knows chicken like the bragging liar too afraid to debate Harris a second time.
-BAWK BAWK BAWK BAWK BAAAAAAAWWWKKKK!
-But then he may be in line for this Friday's release of THE APPRENTICE, the acclaimed movie a Trump ally attempted to block from being seen at all, much less at the heart of the campaign season. The movie is about the relationship between a young Trump (Sebastian Stan) and Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), showing how the Trump we see was created then. BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM breakout star Maria Bakalova also stars as Ivanka, and Rotten Tomatoes is already giving it a 77% approval rating. Getcha popcorn ready, indeed ...
-BUT BEFORE YOU DO ...
-On this date in 1866, the Reno brothers staged the first armed robbery on a train in the United States. On this date in 1951, the Soviet Union announced they possessed an atomic bomb. On this date in 1956, an oral polio vaccine began to be tested (it passed and helped all but eradicate the disease back in the days when people believed in vaccines). On this date in 1973, the Yom Kippur War between Israel, Egypt and Syria began. On this date in 1976, Chinese Communist party officials arrested the previous ruling regime known as the Gang of Four (and inspired an awesome British band to name themselves after said Gang). And on this date in 1993, Michael Jordan retired from professional basketball (he returned in 1995, so arguably he didn't really "retire").
-Debuts on this date: Motion pictures with sound, aka THE JAZZ SINGER (1927), "Love Me Tender" (1956), SPARTACUS (1960), "Everybody" (1982).
-Happy Birthday to George Westinghouse, Le Corbusier, Roland Garros, Helen Wills Moody, Janet Gaynor, Carole Lombard, Thor Heyerdahl, Fannie Lou Hamer, Shana Alexander, Bruno Sammartino, Britt Ekland, Fred Travalena, David Hidalgo, Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd, Elizabeth Shue, Matt Vogel, Todd Howard, Jeremy Sisto, Richard Seymour, William Butler, Jessica Lunsford, and Jazz Jennings.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Lord Alfred Tennyson, W.K. Kellogg, Charles E. Merrill, Walter Hagen, Anwar Sadat, Nelson Riddle, Bette Davis, Denholm Elliott, Ted Bessell, Gorilla Monsoon, Arne Harris, Buck O'Neil, Marian Seldes, Connie Hawkins, Rip Taylor, Ginger Baker, Eddie Van Halen, Johnny Nash, and Judy Tenuta.
-Feed the Worms: Genocidal Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad and right-wing football coach Tony Dungy entered Earth on this date.
-Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was born on this date. You decide if he gets a Happy Birthday or if he Feeds the Worms.
-The Number One Album in the U.S. on this date ... in 2024, MIXTAPE PLUTO by Future ... in 2014, PARTNERS by Barbara Streisand ... in 2004, AMERICAN IDIOT by Green Day ... in 1994, II by Boyz II Men ... in 1984, PURPLE RAIN by Prince and the Revolution ... and in 1974, ENDLESS SUMMER by The Beach Boys.